Welcome to a spot to share ideas for working with students in exceptional education in public schools.
Please describe activities you've successfully used with students to improve fine motor and self-help skills.
Creative classroom adaptations for sensory-based and ergonomic needs are sought. Technology applications, low and high tech, are appreciated.
Above all--be positive and professional in sharing your experiences and ideas. Thanks.

I found the demonstrations a little slow paced but the kids were mesmerized, at least for the first letter (about 10 minutes), and then they naturally got a little "wiggly."

My OT buddy who ran the session uses it on a weekly basis with the students and says that the students really pay attention. When I was there they were chanting along with the letter talk and participating in the activities just fine (for the first 10 minutes!) All the adults were chanting along and participating, too.

Using a solid program, like Handwriting Without Tears, is very successful. The Alphabet Beats video kept the students' attention and engagement for a good 10 minutes, which is pretty much a record in our attention-span compromised world. I think using both programs will be a smart move for those of us, and for our teacher buddies, who have students with significant letter writing concerns.

Thursday, February 16, 2017

I've been recommending videos from https://www.gonoodle.com/ to several of my teachers lately, from elementary school through high school. Check it out yourself and see which videos might be helpful for your students, then pass the link along to your teachers.

Create set of materials for students on OT caseload and train teachers & classroom aides on using items for alerting/calming to aid self regulation & readiness to learn. Include precautions and symptoms of over-stimulation.

Do students have preferred activities for self regulation? If so, help students and staff create a personal menu of preferred activities they can select from on a regular schedule through the day. Enlist the school SLP to use visuals in the schedule.

December

Use seasonal weather and holiday traditions to expand group activities (ice maker for snow, cinnamon-nutmeg or

peppermint to salt/flour/water

dough for olfactory & texture exploration.

Use highly-textured materials (pinecones, gumballs, holly leaves) and other natural materials to create small gifts for families and school staff.

Students can create gift tags (tracing/cutting), write greetings then deliver gifts to school personnel during group sessions.

In many of my schools I work with teachers and speech-language pathologists who enjoy doing groups together to help students develop their academic, communication, social, fine motor and self-help skills. Doing monthly groups with them lets me see:

1. Communication skills I never knew my students possessed,
2. Gaps in their fine motor and self-help skills that I need to address,
3. How thoroughly other staff members know the ins and outs of my students' personalities,
4. Excellent motivational methods for working with my students when they are having behavioral
challenges.

Because we have everyone from the class participate in the group, either as a whole group or in smaller groups, I end up working with students who are not on my caseload and the SLP sometimes ends up working with one of my students who is not on her caseload--no biggie.

Here's an activity ("Hunt the Heart") I gleaned from the Recreation Therapy site, adapted for a group of middle schoolers with significant intellectual and physical disabilities:

We can create the hearts on construction paper or other paper. To make it more interesting they may color the hearts in colors other than red, or stick with the traditional color.

An adult and student helper can place the paper hearts throughout the school for students to find, using their communication devices to announce, "I found a heart!" The students can collect the hearts to decorate their room.

Thursday, February 9, 2017

It's been a bird seed kind of week. Our high schoolers with autism molded three kinds of bird seed into heart shapes and plan to give them to their feathered friends next Tuesday. Most of the students in both classes were "OK" with touching the dry seed and also when it was mixed with the water and gelatin to make it moldable. Some students could measure and mix but not touch; that's okay, too.

This is how the seed cakes look after a day of air drying--still moist inside.

We ran out of heart-shaped cookie cutters, but I think the birds won't mind.

Either coat the inside of the molds with cooking oil or line them with foil.

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Pre-mix the boiling water with unflavored gelatin--I doubled the amount of gelatin listed in the recipe.
After you mix it together you've got about 20 minutes before it starts to set up.

Sunflower seed, nyjer thistle seed and tiny, inexpensive seed.

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Our speech-language pathologist did her communication board magic.

The recipe

It's not easy to spoon the mixed seed into small hearts. Concentration and precision and great tactile input
picking up the gooey stragglers and pushing them into the mold.

Press the seed in firmly, then twist a large diameter straw around in the middle to create a
passageway for the string.

Scooping a level cup or spoonful was a fine motor challenge for some students.

The seed was fun to explore before adding the gelatin + water mixture.

Thursday, February 2, 2017

One of the great things about working in several schools is the creativity of teachers I get to see every day. Several teachers use "News-2-You" https://www.n2y.com/news-2-you/ for ideas and materials for presenting current events and special topics to their students. Other teachers follow websites that feature common and quirky celebrations by the month or day, such as this one:

Note: There are some "over 21" celebrations on this site, make sure you don't have students peering over your shoulder while you're browsing...

Celebrating this particular musical instrument struck a chord with me, since ukuleles seem to be popping up everywhere recently. Also, this wonderful instrument: http://acousticguitar.com/seagull-merlin/ what a great sound!

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

There are some real cute little trees right outside the window of one of my middle school classes for students with significant cognitive disabilities, just perfect for hanging easy-peasy-to-make treats for our feathered friends.

Figure out how long the length of twine needs to be--several turns around the pine cone plus enough to hang over a branch.

Some students were okay with the sharp feel of the pine cone and some consistently pulled away.

Pine cones are ready.

Cookie pan with a mix of bird seed.

Scoop out big clumps of Crisco and spread it all around the pan. Use your device to describe what you're using.

Rolled in shortening and then the seed.

Some folks can roll like lightning!

Some students could only roll a second or two, then gather up their courage to touch the materials again.

All unique!

Bet this will be gone by tomorrow.

After and before. We're not quite sure, but the pine cone on the left may be from last winter...

Word of caution: One of our staff members started having allergy symptoms immediately upon touching the pine cones and hay twine. She had no idea it was going to happen. Check the allergy alerts of your students and know the plan for what to do if someone starts having a reaction.

Bear Creek Lake State Park

Where are you headed this year?

Nags Head, North Carolina, USA

Tucker Takes Nags Head

Disclaimer

OT Tools for Public Schools is a blog for therapists, teachers, parents and anyone else who is interested in creative ideas for helping students "show what they know." It is not a replacement for private occupational therapy, special education, related services or general education in public/private settings. It is not a "medical" site, medical or allied health advice is not offered, and the reader is encouraged to use his/her knowledge of the individual child to decide whether or not an activity might be beneficial or potentially harmful to the child.Since most of the activities mentioned are created from everyday, inexpensive materials, the reader is warned to consider the special needs of his/her student(s) and avoid using any materials which may potentially cause allergic reactions or other negative responses. Direct supervision of the child is required when materials are used.Now that I've scared you to smithereens, go have fun with these ideas!